


Long December

by orphan_account



Category: Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-11-22
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:25:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>I got over hating you, and you started feeling good to me.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>After landing near Paris, the Betty's survivors manage to make a life together. However, on Christmas Eve, Vriess's issues with Johner finally surface.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place after my story "We're All Strangers Here," and after the survivors of _Alien: Resurrection_ have landed on Earth near Paris in the special edition of the movie

" _Salut, mon petit_!"

It had been so long since anyone had spoken French-- or such sentiments-- to Vriess, he didn't realize the dark-haired woman was talking to him at first.  When she called a second time, he glanced at her and was surprised to see that she was smiling at him.

He and Johner were on their way back from their farewell trip to the _Betty_.  The little ship, which Vriess had so lovingly tended for many years, was now burning on the outskirts of what remained of Paris.  The sacrifice of the _Betty_ had been Ripley's idea, but even Vriess had to admit that it was dangerous to leave the ship intact for the US military to find.  After making several trips between the ship and the small apartment they inhabited with Call and Ripley, Vriess and Johner had said their goodbyes and set fire to her.

To make things even more depressing, it was Christmas Eve, in the longest December of Vriess' life.  They hadn't even been in Paris for a month yet, but it seemed like they had spent years on that God-forsaken planet, Earth.  The only good thing that had happened-- unless you counted the things that _hadn't_ happened, like the military not finding them, and xenomorphs not sneaking to Earth on the _Betty_ \-- was that Vriess had begun rebuilding his chair.  At the moment, it couldn't do much more than serve him as transportation, but it was certainly better than the first few days, when Johner had to carry him everywhere.

"C'mon," the big man muttered when Vriess stopped his chair to look at the woman.

"Wait."  Vriess rolled towards her a little.  " _Salut_ ," he said warily.

"Happy Christmas," she said in English, leaving the doorway in whose shelter she stood to walk over to them.  "Are you looking for gifts for someone?  Girlfriends maybe?"

"People give each other presents on this hellhole?" Johner grumbled.

The woman looked him up and down.  "You're spacerats, then."

"Hey, we're not the rats around here, bitch--"  Johner started to raise a fist until Vriess caught his arm, rolling his eyes.

"It's just an expression, Johner."  He turned back to the woman.  "What kind of gifts?"

"Shit, Vriess, we don't have money to be throwin' away on--"

"Jewelry," the French woman interrupted with a smirk at Johner.  "Come on inside."  She took Vriess's hand in hers and led him through the door in which she had been standing, leaving Johner to trudge after them.

The room they entered looked as run down as Vriess's own quarters, except for the metallic jewelry scattered on a table.  "I mostly do earrings," the woman explained, holding up a pair of silvery spirals.  "It's too hard to find any chains for necklaces and bracelets, but earrings are easy."

"What do you use to make them?"  Vriess studied the array of shiny pieces.  One pair of small barbs would look good on Call, he thought, but he didn't know if her ears were pierced or not.  If robots _could_ pierce their ears.  He grimaced, still having trouble thinking of her as an auton.

"Scrap metal-- there's plenty of it around.  I made my tools myself," she added proudly.

"I don't think the girls we stay with are pierced," Vriess said regretfully.  The woman was the first friendly person they had met in the city, and he had wanted to help her out.

"Well, if they decide to get it done, I do that too.  I can pierce anything," she said with a suggestive smirk.

"I imagine so," Vriess murmured, although he doubted she would be so confident after the sight of Ripley's acidic blood.

"Are you done yet?" Johner grumbled on Vriess' right, poking at the jumble of metal with a bored expression.

"Hands off."  The French woman drifted smoothly between them and plucked Johner's hand away from the jewelry.  She turned back to look down at Vriess, then she frowned and touched his ear lightly.  "What happened to you?"

Vriess self-consciously put his hand over the acid scar.  "Uh, accident on the job."

"It looks like you got pierced with a dirty gun, and it got infected.  That's a pretty big hole."

Vriess chuckled in spite of himself.  "I've never had my ears pierced, trust me."

"Hm."  The woman pawed through the metal pieces on the table and picked one up.  "I could make it look nicer for you. . . put this in it."  She handed him the piece, a small, silver-toned gauge.

"I don't know," Vriess said uncomfortably.  "Wouldn't it look weird?"

She laughed.  "Not at all.  There are some guys who wear huge ones-- this is very tame."

"How much?"

The woman looked at him thoughtfully.  "For free.  Consider it a present."  She gave Johner a challenging look, then she urged Vriess over to a better-lit corner of the room.  "Come on.  It won't hurt."

"Jesus Christ, Vriess, we don't have time for this," Johner snapped.

"You want me to tell Ripley what you said about her cooking this morning?" suggested Vriess as he followed the woman.

"You wouldn't," Johner challenged, although he turned a bit pale.

"See if I don't."  Vriess positioned his chair next to a dusty floor lamp.  The woman laughed and stood over him, testing the fit of the gauge.

"What is your name, _mon petit?_ " she asked in French as she worked.

"Vriess.  You?" he replied in French as well.

"Manon."  She held the gauge in place over his ear and pointed to a small mirror hanging on the wall, in which he could see his reflection.  "It will look nice.  Your girlfriend will be quite impressed."

"She's not. . . I mean, I don't have a girlfriend.  The girls with us, they're just our friends."

"I see. . . boyfriend, then?" she asked with a meaningful, teasing look at Johner, who looked at them suspiciously.

"No!" Vriess spluttered.  "We just work together.  The four of us."

"Ah."  She bent over him as she installed the gauge in his ear.  "What a pity I am married, then, if you are single."  Vriess felt himself flush; he couldn't remember the last time a woman-- or anyone else-- had flirted with him.

"There," Manon continued in English once more, "all done.  What do you think?"

Vriess was pleased to see that his ear _did_ look better, although he had never imagined that he would be decorating it.  Nevertheless, at least it looked like the hole in it was intentional.

"Thank you, Manon," he said, smiling up at her.  "I like it."

"I'm glad.  Now you two had better hurry home; it's getting dark."

\--

"What did she say about me?" Johner asked suspiciously as they went home.

"She didn't say anything about you."

"Don't fuck with me, Vriess.  When you two were talking that crazy frou-frou language of yours, she looked right at me!  What'd she say?"

"She was asking if Ripley was your girlfriend, since you were so scared of her."

"Oh."  Johner snickered.  "I hope you set her straight on that one.  I only date humans."

"That's why I didn't offer to bring Ripley in for a piercing," said Vriess.  "I don't think earrings would last very long with her blood on them."

When they reached their apartment, they were greeted with the pleasant smell of frying beef.  Judging from the fact that it _was_ pleasant, Vriess figured that Call must be doing the cooking.  Sure enough, the little android grinned at them from over the half-wall partition that separated the kitchen area from the living room of the apartment.

"I was starting to think you couldn't bear to let _Betty_ go and jumped in the fire with her."

"Nope.  We would have been back a lot sooner, but Vriess here decided to get his ear pierced," Johner growled, rolling his eyes.

"Really?  Let me see!"  Call darted around the partition to admire Vriess's ear.

"You don't seem the type," Ripley commented from where she was sitting on the dilapidated sofa, the one piece of furniture in the living room besides a TV salvaged from the _Betty_.

"I didn't really get it pierced," Vriess said, somewhat embarrassed by the attention.  "She just put this thing in the hole that was already there."

"'She'?" prompted Call.

"Some bitch who was flirting with him, trying to get him to buy shit," Johner said helpfully.

"She wasn't flirting with me!" Vriess lied.  "She told me she was married."

"Oh, that reminds me.  C'mere, Vriess."  Call motioned him over to a doorway.  "Know what that is?"  She pointed up at a scrubby piece of greenery tied over the doorframe.

"Some kind of cactus?"

"Nope.  It's a representation of mistletoe."  She leaned down and kissed him lightly on the cheek.  "Merry Christmas."  Laughing at Vriess' surprised blush, she dashed back over to the stove to rescue their dinner, which was about to go the way of the _Betty_ : up in flames.

"Well aren't you Mr. Popular today," Johner grumbled.  Vriess gracefully ignored him as they gathered around the kitchen counter to eat.

"I hate to ruin the festive mood," said Ripley, "but we're going to have to start rationing our water."

"Eh, they're always saying that."  Johner shoved a forkful of ground beef into his mouth.  "We haven't had to do it since we got here."

"It's serious this time," Ripley replied.  "It hasn't rained in a month.  I talked to one of the volunteers at the reservoir-- he said it's nearly dry."

"What about the river?" asked Call.

" _That_ shit would kill us faster than the fuckin' xenomorphs," snorted Johner.  "No wonder they call it the Sin."

"It's not spelled like that."  Vriess felt it his duty as a Frenchman-- even a displaced one-- to defend the Seine's honor.  Johner just rolled his eyes and stole a vegetable of indeterminate breed from Vriess' plate.

"Anyway," Ripley said pointedly, "we still have the water supply we took from the _Betty_ , and Call and I filled what containers we could spare.  But probably everyone else in the city is hoarding it too, so from now on we need to use as little as possible."

"Why should we?" Johner griped.  "Let's enjoy it before it runs out.  You can bet everyone else will be."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't do the right thing," Call said.

"You and your fuckin' morals!  Fine.  Good thing there's still plenty of beer to drink."

"God," Call said fervently, turning her eyes upward in the direction of the aforementioned deity.

"Too bad we can't bathe in beer," Ripley said with a smirk, "because we're going to have to start sharing the showers."

Johner grinned at her.  "Whenever you ladies are ready, just let me know."

"Ripley!"  The look of horror on Call's face was almost comical.  "You're not serious!"

Ripley only smiled and got up, taking her plate to the sink.  "Johner, you and Vriess can go first if you want."

There was a long pause in which nobody looked at each other as Ripley disappeared into the bedroom she shared with Call.  Then, finally, Johner found his voice once more.

"Oh yeah?  Well-- your cooking _sucks_!"

\--

To be continued  



	2. Chapter 2

When the four survivors had searched the abandoned apartments and lofts of Paris for one to squat in, they had made their choice based on Vriess's needs.  Their apartment was on its building's ground floor and boasted wide doorways; though it only had one bathroom, that room was a spacious one.  There was enough room for Vriess's chair, and Ripley had found old pipes to bolt to the shower walls as hand rails.

Despite all this, Vriess felt that it was far too small for Johner and him to share.

"I don't fuckin' believe this," Johner grumbled as he pulled off his shirt and threw it in a heap on the floor.  "Fuckin' water shortage on fuckin' Christmas.  Like this piece of shit planet couldn't get any worse."

Vriess only half heard him, being absorbed in the long process of getting himself undressed.  For Vriess, self-sufficiency had come at the sacrifice of speed: he could do just about anything, but it took him a while.  Johner was already stripped to his shorts and sitting on the edge of the tub impatiently by the time Vriess got his shirt and one boot off.

"Could you hurry the fuck up?" Johner growled.

"No, unless you want to help," Vriess returned sarcastically.

"Anything to get this over with."  Johner knelt and yanked Vriess's other boot off, throwing it on top of his shirt, then reached for his belt.  "At least you're not wearing all those fucking straps you used to have."  Vriess flushed and started to protest as Johner unfastened his pants, but the larger man didn't even pause.

"Lift your ass up," Johner ordered.  Vriess obeyed, pushing himself up by the arms, and Johner pulled the pants off, tossing them aside.  He grabbed Vriess around the waist and stood him up in the tub without ceremony.

 _This **is** quicker than undressing myself,_ Vriess had to admit.  Even though Johner had only carried Vriess around for a few days, he had learned how to maneuver the paralyzed man efficiently.  Those skills paid off now.

"No wonder it takes you so fucking long in here," muttered Johner as he started the water.  "And I thought you just jacked off a lot."

"Funny."  Vriess flipped him off, then he winced as the shower spray hit his back.  "Ow, damn, do you have to make the water so hot?"

"I like it hot."  Johner pulled off his own shorts and stepped in, grabbing the soap before Vriess could get it and scrubbing it through his short hair.

"Ripley and Call don't know what they're missing," Johner declared as he moved on to his broad chest.  Vriess's eyes dropped involuntarily; as ugly as Johner's face was, his body was in good shape.  The scars crisscrossing his chest didn't bother Vriess. .. but the desire Vriess suddenly felt for Johner did.

"There's not room for more than two people in here anyway," Vriess muttered, looking away.  He managed to forget his feelings for Johner, brought on by their kiss on the _Betty,_ for long stretches of time. . . but then Vriess's emotions would descend on him all at once, at the most awkward times.  Like now.

Vriess tried to concentrate on the work of washing himself instead.  He was leaning in the front corner of the shower where he could hold on to a rail for balance.  He was able to stand for a short amount of time with support; it was only the fact that he couldn't keep his balance without feeling his legs and feet that kept him sitting most of the time.  He seized the soap from Johner and started washing his face and neck.

"I wasn't through with that!"  Johner snatched it back, getting soap in Vriess's eyes in the process.

"Ow, shit, you bastard--"  Vriess rinsed his face off and glared at Johner from between the dripping locks of hair that hung over his eyes.  "I hope there's not a fucking soap shortage because I'm not sharing it with you again!"

"Yeah, yeah, quit your bitching."  Johner bent over and rubbed the soap over each of his long legs, then tossed it at Vriess.  "There, all yours."  Vriess caught the soap single-handedly, and Johner raised an eyebrow.  "Impressive."

Vriess ignored him and started the awkward process of washing the lower half of his body without falling over. Johner stepped under the spray of water, closer to him.  "You need any help?"

"No, I can get it."  Vriess fervently wished that Johner were further away from him as he leaned against the wall and bent down to wash his legs.  To make matters worse, the soap chose that moment to free itself from his grasp.  "Shit!" Vriess exclaimed.

"Here."  Johner caught the runaway soap and crouched down, rubbing it up one of Vriess's thin legs.  "It'll be quicker."  Vriess bit his lip as Johner did his other leg, looking down at the larger man hunched in front of him and the huge hands he couldn't feel moving over his legs.

Then Johner glanced up and caught Vriess watching him.  Vriess's cheeks flared with heat, and Johner noticed.

"Hey, don't get used to the view.  I ain't goin' on my knees for you again!"  He grinned broadly and stood up.  He put his hands on Vriess's sides and pulled him under the water to rinse off.

"So you can't feel anything down there, hunh?" Johner asked, apparently taking enjoyment from Vriess's discomfort.

"No," Vriess said defiantly.  Normally he was at ease with his disability, even in the face of questions or remarks.  So why was it that Johner could always make him feel defensive?

"All that flirting with Call was just for show, then?"

Vriess glared up at him, trying not to shiver at Johner's prolonged touch.  "I can still get it up.  I just can't feel it."

"Hunh.  Then what's the point?"

"Some people actually think about pleasing others instead of themselves all the time!" Vriess snapped.  He pulled out of Johner's hold, leaning back against the front wall of the shower instead.  "Are you finished?  We're wasting water."

Johner reached past him and shut the water off without answering, then he put his hands right back on Vriess's sides.  "So there's more to it than gettin' yourself off?  Like what?"

"Johner. . . ."  Vriess's heartbeat echoed in his ears even as he expressed his irritation.  He knew Johner was trying to egg him on again, to start another fight.

"C'mon, what's the big secret?"  Johner's grin had lessened a bit, but he showed no signs of letting Vriess go.  The smaller man was trapped there in the corner of the shower, with nowhere to go even if he could walk.  Johner leaned his head forward until his forehead rested on the shower wall and his lips were right by Vriess's ear with its new gauge. "Tell me how you do it. . . ."

"Fuck off, Johner."  Vriess made a token attempt to push the larger man away.

"I'm serious, man."  Johner's hands crept around to Vriess's back to rest just above the deep scar that marked where Vriess's spinal cord had been severed.  "I want to know."

Vriess drew in his breath sharply as Johner's calloused fingers pressed against his skin.  During his recovery, Vriess had discovered that the spot above his scar had become especially sensitive, perhaps his body's way of replacing the sensitivity it had lost in other places.  And now Johner's hand was there, his fingers lightly stroking the place and driving Vriess mad.

"Johner, when you touch me there--"  Vriess closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the shower wall, unable to continue.

"Yeah?"  He felt Johner lift his head, and when he opened his eyes, the blue eyes were boring into his face.  Johner wasn't grinning at all now, but he looked intrigued.

"It's--"  Vriess broke off again as Johner's fingers strummed over his back.  He managed to choke back a groan of pleasure, and Johner chuckled softly, looking down at him.

"Hunh, you were right. . . you _can_ get it up."  He dug his fingers into Vriess's back and rested his forehead on the wall again.  "Want me to stop?" Johner whispered.

 _Say yes, say yes. . . ._ Vriess thought.  But it would be a lie: he _didn't_ want Johner to stop, not after weeks of wanting the other man.

"No. . . ."

\--

Later when Vriess's head cleared, he was still slumped against Johner, both of them panting for breath.

"Damn," Johner said, tilting his head from side to side to crack his neck.  "Guess we'll need the water again."  He leaned Vriess back against the wall and turned the shower back on; suddenly unsupported, the smaller man had to grab for the rails and brace his shaking arms to keep himself up.  He glared at Johner, who didn't notice as he washed himself off.

"Would it be too much for ask for you to help me back into my chair?" Vriess asked sullenly, once the water was off and Johner had pushed the shower curtain open.

"Uh, sure.  I mean, no.  Here."  Johner picked Vriess up, a little shaky himself, then set the smaller man down in his chair.  Johner pulled a towel off the rack and stared drying off, while Vriess tried to make sense of what had happened.

 _I let him get to me again, that's what happened._   True, Vriess had benefitted too, but Johner wasn't paying him the least bit of attention now.  He had no feelings, while Vriess's raged on, unabated by what they had done.

"You gonna just sit there?" Johner commented as he pulled on his shorts.  Vriess glared up at him.

"I'd like some privacy," he snapped.  The last thing he wanted was Johner around to comment on how long it took Vriess to dress.

"Jesus, sorry," Johner muttered.  He gave Vriess a confused look, then scooped up the rest of his clothes and left the room.  Vriess just sat there a minute, staring at the empty shower and cursing himself for making such a mistake, for letting Johner get to him.  
  
After Vriess was finally dressed, he rolled out of the bathroom into the hall.  He glanced into the room they shared to see Johner, still naked, stretched out on the bed-- which they also had to share-- with one thick arm draped over his face.  Vriess closed the bedroom door to spare the girls that sight, then continued on into the living room.

Vriess felt like being alone, and he had hoped Ripley and Call would be in their room.  However, he found them were sitting on the sofa and watching TV, Call leaning against Ripley's shoulder with the hybrid woman's arm around her.  Even in Paris, they could only pick up one television station, and its signal was sketchy. . . but then, that was more than Vriess expected from Earth.

"Hey Vriess," Call said sleepily, blinking over at him.  "Everything okay?  I heard Johner yelling back there."

Vriess felt his face heat up.  "Yeah, he was just shooting his mouth off."

"Shooting off, hunh?"  This came from Ripley, who gazed at Vriess over the top of Call's dark head.  The amused look on the hybrid woman's face unnerved Vriess to no end.

"Anything good on TV?" he asked to deflect their curious as he rolled his chair into his usual spot at the end of the sofa.

" _It's a Wonderful Life_.  This crap is 400 years old, and they _still_ show it every year," Call chuckled.

Vriess smiled in spite of himself.  "Well, I guess it's something familiar for Ripley, then."

"Some things will never change," Ripley said, stretching out her arm then returning it to Call's shoulders.

By the time the movie ended and one of the at least one-hundred versions of _A Christmas Carol_ began, Call was asleep (Vriess never could think of it as "standby mode" in relation to her), and even Ripley's eyes were beginning to droop.  She lasted until the Spirit of Christmas Past appeared, but after that, she gave up and went to bed, Call stumbling after her.  Vriess watched the rest of the movie alone, then he turned off the TV with a sigh.

Vriess was tempted to sleep in his chair, but his back would make him regret it in the morning.  Instead, he went back to his room to find Johner still asleep, though now under the covers to combat the intense cold that was seeping into the apartment.  Vriess rolled around to his side of the bed and transferred himself out of the chair.  He lay with his back to Johner, blankets pulled up to his ears.  He was as sleepless as he had been on Christmas Eve as a kid, but for much different reasons.  After a few minutes, he heard Johner shift and half-wake.

"Vriess?"  Johner's arm moved under the covers, and his hand brushed Vriess's back in _that_ spot.  Vriess drew in his breath, but he remained silent.  Johner's breathing slowed as he went back to sleep, leaving Vriess alone again.

\--

To be continued


	3. Chapter 3

"Vriess!"

He dragged his eyes to see Call peering down at him, beaming in the muted, pale grey light seeping in past the curtains in Vriess's single window.  "Wake up!  I made something good for breakfast."

Vriess grinned, immediately wide awake.  "That's all it takes to get _me_ out of bed."  As he sat up, Call glanced at the empty spot next to him and frowned.

"Hey, where's Johner?"

"I don't know, and I don't care."  Still, Vriess couldn't help but wonder the same thing as he transferred himself into his chair.  Johner had been there when Vriess finally fell asleep the previous night, but now there was no trace of the other man.

"Guess he went out somewhere," Call shrugged.  "More food for us then."

The food turned out to be sweet rolls traded from a nearby baker, and best of all coffee, which they had been saving for a special occasion.  It was easy enough to find edibles in the abandoned streets of the city, especially with all the wild animals that now roamed the outskirts.  Coffee beans were another matter entirely.

"You sure you don't want some?" Call asked Ripley, offering her a coffee cup.

The hybrid shook her head.  "If I remember correctly, I used to be addicted to the stuff.  I don't need to take up my old bad habits," she said with a smirk.  Vriess on the other hand gulped it down eagerly; it was the comfort he had missed most since arriving on Earth.

"Johner skip out on us?" Ripley asked as she bit into a roll.

When Vriess didn't answer, instead staring sullenly down at his coffee, Call said with a hint of confusion, "He wasn't in their room when I went in."

Ripley raised an eyebrow.  "Vriess?"

"How should I know?  You can't expect me to keep up with him."  Vriess looked up in time to see Call and Ripley exchange glances.  "What?"

"You two have another fight or something?" Call asked gently.  "Is that what the yelling was about last night?"  Vriess's jaw clenched out of embarrassment, but he was saved by Ripley, surprisingly enough.

"Let it go, Annalee.  Johner'll take care of himself."

Call let it drop, but every now and then, she cast her expressive dark eyes at Vriess worriedly.

The three of them spent the rest of the morning watching both TV and the weather, which was growing increasingly cold and cloudy.  There wasn't much on TV-- just a few old Christmas specials mixed with static-- and Vriess ended up staring out the window instead, wondering where Johner was.  They had leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch, and Johner still hadn't returned by the time they finished.

Finally Vriess couldn't stand any more of just hanging around the apartment.  "I'm going out for a while," he told the women as he shrugged into his jacket.

"You want some company?" Call asked him, still with a look of concern.

"Call."  Ripley's voice came flatly from the sofa.  "Let him be."

"No thanks," Vriess said.  He looked up at the auton girl and managed a smile.  "I'll be okay."

Vriess rolled outside and wandered down the street, wrapping his jacket close around him against the cold.  He seemed to be the only person out due to the weather and the holiday-- not that there were that many people left, even in Paris, but Vriess usually ran into a few other squatters when he went out.  Today, he didn't see a single person until he reached his destination: the Place de la Concorde.

There were a handful of people there, mostly young couples who were likely trying to get away from overly watchful parents.  Vriess parked his chair by the ragged stump that marked where some monument had stood.  Legend held that it had been a golden obelisk, but that didn't really matter to Vriess.  He just liked the spot because it was open and usually full of people to watch-- a nice diversion from the small apartment and the same three faces he saw every day.

" _Joyeaux Noël, mon petit!_ "  Vriess looked up, jolted from his thoughts, and was surprised to see Manon coming toward him with a smile.  "You aren't at home with your friends today?"

"I was in all morning, and it's a pretty small apartment," said Vriess wryly.  Manon laughed and perched on the remains of the monument next to his wheelchair.

"What about you?" Vriess asked.  "Your husband isn't with you?"

"No.  He's celebrating his usual way, by drinking."  Manon gave a wry smile.  "Easier to have a good holiday out on my own."

"Oh. . . I'm sorry."

"Euh, don't be."  She waved her hand dismissively.  "I have it better than a lot of women: he's not mean when he's drunk, just stupid."

_That sounds familiar,_ Vriess added silently.

"Besides," Manon continued, "I have my jewelry craft to keep me company.  Better it like that, with him not paying attention to me, than him noticing me just to be mean to me."

Vriess looked at her, wondering what sort of husband wouldn't pay attention to such a kind, talented woman.  "But. . . why do you stay with someone who doesn't appreciate you?"

Manon gave him an odd little look then smiled.  "Because I love him, of course."

"But--"

She laughed.  "You don't know much about women, _mon ami_.  It is possible to love someone, faults and all.  You men do it too, but usually you don't see the faults in your lady.  We however are very good at picking out our men's faults-- and we love them all the same."

Vriess was silent at that.  If Manon was right, if one could love a person despite the most grievous faults. . . did that mean it was possible for him to accept, even to _love_ Johner just the way he was, rude and inconsiderate?  It made Vriess a little uncomfortable to realize that it _was_ possible.

"Ah, I see you are thinking hard about my philosophy," Manon chuckled, nudging him.  "Perhaps it applies to your women friends?"

Vriess smiled, thinking of Ripley and Call.  "They see our faults, all right.  I think they prefer each other's company though."

"Oh, poor Vriess," Manon smiled.  "Don't worry, you will find someone.  Oh look, there goes your big rude friend."  Vriess followed the direction in which she pointed, and he saw Johner some distance away.  Obviously unaware that he was being observed, the large man was walking towards home, hands in his pockets.

"I wonder where he's been," Vriess muttered.  "He's been gone all day."

"I have to admit I don't trust the looks of him," Manon said, then she smiled again.  "But I suppose he must be all right, if you are his friend."

"Yeah," Vriess replied thoughtfully.  "He's all right."

A few moments later, Vriess wished Manon a merry Christmas and started for home.  As he rolled down the street, he wondered just where Johner had been.  Off with a woman maybe?  Checking on the charred remains of the _Betty_?  _At least he's safe,_ Vriess thought in spite of his irritation.

When Vriess got back to the apartment, Johner was standing over the kitchen counter, stuffing leftovers into his mouth as fast as he could.  Call was trying to find out where he had been, while Ripley leaned against the back of the sofa looking amused.

"We were worried about you!  We at least deserve to know where you were!" Call whined.

"You were worried about _me_?  That's a first."  Johner glanced at Vriess and winked.  "Hey man."

Vriess muttered something noncommittal and rolled over next to Ripley.  "What time did _he_ drag in?"

"About five minutes ago.  Went straight for the food and won't tell Call where he was."  Ripley smirked.  "It's driving her nuts."

Call finally gave up and was starting to sit down on the sofa, when she glanced out the window.  "Hey, look!" she called, bouncing back to her feet.  "It's snowing!"

"Wow."  Ripley joined her at the window.  "I suppose it's festive."

"Snow, hunh?" Johner asked around his last mouthful of food.  "Too fucking wet and cold for my liking."

Vriess rolled a little closer to the window to look out between Call and Ripley.  The flakes were large and were already falling quickly, although they weren't sticking to the ground yet: there was no ground cover but broken concrete on their street, and it still held enough heat to melt the snow as soon as it landed.  Nevertheless, it was kind of nice.

"It's coming down pretty hard."  Call glanced up at Ripley and smiled.  "You've never seen snow either, right?"

"Nope."  Ripley glanced down at her, the restive dark eyes pausing on the auton's face for a moment before turning back to the window.  "Remember, I've had a pretty sheltered life."

"Well, aren't you two curious about it then?"  Johner walked up behind them and leaned on the arm of the sofa, his usual leer plastered on his face.  "Go out there and frolic, or whatever sexy girls are supposed to do in the snow."

"Get a life, Johner," Call said, although it seemed more from force of habit than real irritation.  She brushed past him and Vriess and pulled on a coat.  "Let's at least go outside, Ripley.  I want to feel it before it quits."

Ripley wrapped her lean body in a jacket and followed the smaller woman outside.  When they were gone, Johner turned around to face Vriess, leaning back against the window sill.

"Vriess."

"What do you want?" Vriess snapped, feeling awkward now that they were alone together.  Johner dug into one of his pants pockets, then pulled out a lumpy bundle.  
  
"Here," Johner said awkwardly, thrusting it.  "Merry fuckin' Christmas."

Vriess gave him a look of suspicion but reached up and took the bundle.  "This is one of my own socks, Johner."

"It's _in_ the sock, dipshit," growled Johner.  "I didn't have anything else to wrap it in."

Vriess reached into the (thankfully clean) sock and pulled out something hard and shiny.  Close inspection revealed it to be a small metallic figure of the Eiffel Tower-- whole, before it had been broken in two by whatever catastrophe stuck Paris.  It was a bright, fake gold color except for where a few rusted spots peeked through the veneer.  Yet it was intact and looked a lot better than most of what had survived in Paris-- including Vriess and Johner themselves.

"Uh. . . ."  Johner broke the silence when Vriess said nothing.  "I know you like that tower thing, being French and all, so. . . ."  He trailed off, clearly embarrassed.

"Johner, I. . . thank you."  Vriess closed his hand around the little figure and looked up at the taller man.  "Where did you get it? "

"I found it in some old building where a souvenir place used to be."  Johner grinned, looking a bit proud of himself.  "Took all morning to find it."

" _That's_ why you were gone so long?"  Vriess, now the one embarrassed, looked away.  _He spend all that time looking for a gift for **me**._

"No," Johner said defensively, contradicting what he had just said.  "But-- well, I pissed you off yesterday, so when I found it. . . I thought you'd like it, that's all."

Before Vriess could think of anything to say that wouldn't further embarrass either of them, Johner snickered and pointed at the window.  "Hey, check it out.  _That's_ what Christmas is all about."  Vriess followed his gaze to see Ripley and Call out in front of their building, arms around each other and kissing deeply.

"Uh, I'm going somewhere else," muttered Vriess as he turned his chair away from the window.  "I don't want to be here when Ripley catches you watching them."

"You got a point," Johner said, and he followed when Vriess rolled down the hall into their bedroom.  Johner shut the door and flopped down on the bed while Vriess went to their own small window and put the Eiffel Tower figure on the sill.

"Thank you, Johner. . . really," he mumbled.

"Yeah."  Johner was quiet after that, and Vriess wondered what he was thinking.

"Think it could snow enough to end the water shortage?" Johner asked abruptly.  
  
"I don't know."  Vriess finally turned his chair to look at Johner again.  "Why?  Changed your mind about living on beer for a while?"

"Course not.  Just wondering if Ripley'll keep enforcing the shower restrictions."  Johner sat up and stretched, then grinned at Vriess.

For some reason, Vriess felt himself grinning back.  "You damn pervert."

"So you _did_ like it," Johner crowed, leaning over to give Vriess a slap he couldn't feel on his knee.  "I wasn't so sure when you ran out on me."

"Ran out on you?"

"Yeah, you know, after.  You and your privacy."  Johner, still leaning forward, rested his weight on one elbow as he looked up at Vriess.  "I mean, it's cool and all, but I thought you had some regrets.  Didn't peg you as the type to fuck and run."

"Actually I'm not really the type to fuck _or_ run," Vriess observed, earning a sincere chuckle from Johner.  In a way, Vriess didn't want to go on, but in another way, it was about damn time they actually talked to each other.  "But of course I had regrets!  What'd you expect?  You've hated me for years, ever since the-- the accident, then all of a sudden you want to fool around?  And I _went_ for it."  He shook his head and finished, only half joking, "I'm damn ashamed of myself."

Johner was silent for a while, and Vriess saw the muscles in his jaw work.  When he finally spoke, it was slowly, and his eyes were fixed out the window, not on Vriess.  "Yeah.  I hated you.  I hated you really fucking bad for fucking up my face.  But then I found something to hate worse."

His eyes shifted then and fell on Vriess's face.  The two men looked at one another over the short distance, and Vriess felt a thousand miles away from him.

"And. . . well, there's accidents, and there's deliberate evil shit," Johner went on.  "I got over hating you, and you started feeling good to me-- even when I had to carry you fucking everywhere."

_You started feeling good to me._   That summed it up pretty well for Vriess, too, and the space between them diminished.

"Yeah, well," he said aloud.  "Yeah, I liked it."

"Wanna do it again?"

"Yeah," said Vriess.  He turned his chair towards the door, but Johner jumped to his feet.

"Fuck the chair.  Too slow."  He bent down and encircled Vriess's waist with one thick arm then hefted the smaller man up on his hip.  Vriess cringed when Johner carried him through the hall, but Ripley and Call were nowhere to be seen.  Still, he didn't relax until they were in the bathroom and Johner had locked the door behind them.

After Johner did most of the undressing for both of them-- Vriess balancing awkwardly on the edge of the tub-- Johner lifted him again and started the shower.  He set Vriess on his feet with Vriess's back to him and chuckled.

"We're gettin' good at this," he muttered in Vriess's ear.  "First things first though-- I got filthy digging through shit this morning." He reached past Vriess for the soap.

"I thought you _liked_ getting dirty," Vriess pointed out as he felt Johner shift behind him to wash up.

"Yeah, well.  Earth dirt's nasty."  Johner put his arms around Vriess and smeared his soapy hands over the smaller man's chest.  Vriess started at the unexpected touch.

"Got any more sensitive spots I should know about?" Johner fairly purred in his ear.  He flicked his thumbs over Vriess's nipples, making the smaller man gasp faintly.  He had never imagined Johner to be at all considerate of his sex partners. . . but then Johner had been full of surprises lately.

"If I told you, it'd make it too easy for you," Vriess finally answered.

"Fucking tease."  Johner slid his hands down Vriess's sides and held the smaller man against his chest.  "Well, I just got one. . . and it's a _big_ one."

"Don't flatter yourself," Vriess bantered back, even though Johner wasn't really exaggerating.

"Oh you're the one who should be flattered."  Johner's breath came hot in Vriess's ear, and his fingers trailed down the smaller man's chest.  "Not many guys get to handle it."  He pulled Vriess under the shower spray to rinse them both off, then he turned off the water.  

Vriess felt Johner's tongue tracing his ear again, then Johner's mouth dropped to his neck, licking and biting at his skin.  A prickle of electricity flashed down Vriess's spine to the point of injury, then flared out along his scars.

"Johner," Vriess groaned through his teeth.

"Yeah, Vriess?"  Johner's hand drifted around Vriess's side to brush the scarred spot on his back.  Vriess shuddered with pleasure and reached back blindly with one hand.  It landed on Johner's hip, and Vriess gripped it tightly.

"You're good with your mouth," Vriess finally got out.  "Thought all it could do was shoot off."

Johner chuckled then gave Vriess's shoulder a hard nip.  "You'd be surprised."  He put his hands back to Vriess's sides and pushed him forward a little.  "Hold yourself up a minute, Ironsides-- you'll see what I can do with it."

Vriess braced his hands on the front of the shower and waited, a tremble of anticipation working its way through his upper body.  He felt Johner's teeth and tongue on the back of his neck, then the touch withdrew.  Except for the large hands still holding Vriess's sides, Johner might have completely withdrawn. . . until his tongue raked across Vriess's scars.

"Nngh!"  Vriess gave a choked moan and bent his head, trying to catch his breath while Johner caressed his back.  Water dripped from the bits of his hair hanging down, some drops clinging there until Vriess would jerk involuntarily at Johner's touch.

"Mmn. . . ."  Johner scraped Vriess's skin with his teeth, then drew his tongue over the same spot; the contrasting sensations nearly drove Vriess crazy.  After a couple minutes, Johner stood up again and pressed against Vriess's back.

Johner put his mouth back to Vriess's ear and hissed, "I wanna fuck you, Vriess."

Vriess froze.  He had never expected to hear those words again, especially not from Johner. . . and he certainly hadn't ever considered how it would work with another man.

When Vriess didn't speak, Johner muttered, "Uh, if it freaks you out--"

"No, no," Vriess breathed.  "Just not here. . . I can't stand up forever."

"Heh, you have pretty high expectations of how long you'll last," chuckled Johner, a hint of relief in his voice.  He wrapped his arms around Vriess's middle and lifted him right out of the shower, then Johner grabbed a towel and scrubbed them both down.

"Hey, what about our clothes?" Vriess protested when Johner lifted him back to his hip and reached for the door.

"They'll still be here when we get through."

"But Ripley and Call--"  Before Vriess could finish, Johner threw open the door and bolted for their room.  He laid Vriess down on his back on the bed neither of them had bothered to make, then collapsed next to him.  Vriess looked into Johner's scarred, ugly face and found deep-set blue eyes looking thoughtfully back.

"You sure, man?"  Johner flicked his eyes down Vriess's body then back up into his eyes.  "You won't feel it, will you?"

His concern made Vriess want him all the more.  " _You'll_ feel it."

\--

After they had finished, they lay side by side a moment, staring at each other. . . then Johner's free hand went to the back of Vriess's head, and had crushed their mouths together.

Vriess moaned into Johner's mouth, as excited by the kiss as by any of it.  Johner's tongue drove deeply into Vriess's mouth and his fingers clenched in the smaller man's hair as he rubbed Vriess's back.  Vriess kissed him back, the way he'd been thinking about ever since they'd landed on Earth, with emotions that went beyond simple desire. . . the kind that looked past Johner's many faults, just as Manon had said.

After their mouths broke apart, Johner whispered into Vriess's ear, "Didn't know what fuckin' hit you, right?"

"I sure didn't know you were gonna kiss me," Vriess mumbled.

Johner was quiet a moment before asking, "That a problem?"

"No.  It's just starting to become sort of a trend."

"I know."  Johner shifted, moving Vriess off of him and laying him on his side.  Vriess looked up with the feeling he had screwed things up. . . but Johner just tugged the rumpled covers up over them both and draped an arm over Vriess's back, pulling him close again.

Johner rested his head on the pillow above Vriess's and mumbled into his hair, "I could use a nap."

"We'll miss Ripley's Christmas dinner," Vriess sighed against Johner's neck.

"Perfect timing."

Something else a bit more troubling occurred to Vriess.  "And our clothes are still in the bathroom."

"The way I had you screamin', the girls already know."

"You arrogant bastard."  Still, he could be right. . . and Vriess realized that he didn't care all that much after all.  He might care later, but for now, he was too happy to worry what Ripley and Call-- well, mostly Call-- would think.

Vriess tilted his head back to look up at Johner.  "Hey.  Kiss me again."

"That'll ruin the surprise."  Johner smirked at him then kissed him anyway, deep and slow.  Vriess let his eyes drop closed.

_I love you, you son of a bitch,_ he thought.  _And maybe someday, I'll be able to tell you._

\--

The End


End file.
